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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Altered friendships and loss of public trust--that's what the Former Finance Commissioner says happened after John Ferguson openly challenged goings-on at city hall.

Andrew Beckett saying he was personally effected by Ferguson's public questions. He says he was stopped and questioned by members of the public, and that his relationships with family and friends suffered.

Beckett telling the court the repeated questions were frustrating because Ferguson's information was incorrect.

Beckett also said Ferguson was trying to use his notoriety to go for the mayor's job in the May 2008 election, and that once he lost, Ferguson stopped making a public fuss about the issue.

No doubt you've been swerving to avoid a pothole or two on the way to and from work recently.The City of Saint John's Municipal Operations department receiving many calls since the beginning of the month with a lack of snow on the road and the freeze/thaw cycle breaking up the asphalt.Deputy Commissioner Kevin Rice tells CHSJ News says when crews are not clearing snow, they are surveying the city examining the roads and keeping up with potholes.

He says their mandate is too fill the potholes with cold mix which is a temporary fix until the hot asphalt plant opens in the spring.

Rice says the cold fix is a very sticky material and as vehicles especially transports drive over the pothole, the material sticks to the tires and gets pulled out of the hole a little bit at a time. He says they have situations where they have go back and refill a pothole that was repaired a day or a week earlier.

Now that Finance Minister Blaine Higgs has finished up his pre-budget consultations, the time has come for number crunching.

Jason Edwards of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives tells CHSJ News the tax cuts implemented in 2008 by the previous Liberal Government should be done away with because they didn't do anything for the provincial economy.

Edwards has co-authored a report calling for changes that include the tax rate on those people earning more than 150 thousand dollars a year in the province rising to 21 per cent and more than 17 per cent for those New Brunswickers earning over 116 thousand dollars annually.He estimates government revenues could increase by more than 260 million dollars a year and that extra money could be used where it's really need in public services such as health and education.

The defamation trial of former Common Councillor John Ferguson has been told no key information about the early retirement programme was withheld from Common Council.Former Finance Commissioner Andrew Beckett told the court there was alot of frustration at the Pension Board about Ferguson's accusations and he wasn't aware of any Pension Board trustee playing politics.

The jury was shown a video of then City Manager Terry Totten calling Ferguson's numbers and conclusions incorrect.

Totten tells Common Council the early retirefment programme saved the city over 5 million dollars and he was unaware of any claim for disability being approved without proper medical documentation or because someone didn't get along with their supervisor.

Don't look for a February holiday happening in our province anytime soon.

Family Day is a holiday in four other provinces including Alberta and Ontario but the Premier says another holiday wouldn't be good for small businesses many of which are on shaky ground and facing economic challenges such as an increase in the minimum wage which is due to take effect in September.The Premier goes on to say the state of the economy is just too fragile right now and we already have a number of holidays throughout the year.

The jury in the John Ferguson defamation trial watching more excerpts from Common Council meetings.

They watched the night where Ferguson presented his report to council about perceived issues and misconduct by the pension board, specifically regarding employees receiving permanent disability benefits without a valid reason.

But other councillors not happy with the report -- both Councillor Christ Titus and Deputy Mayor Michelle Hooten calling the report smoke and mirrors with no concrete evidence.

Titus says he was offended that as a pension trustee, Ferguson is making allegations that the board would be rubber-stamping benefits without proper justification.

Former City Finance Commissioner Andrew Beckett remains on the stand and will continue his testimony today.